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A Step-By-Step First Time Seller's Guide

Putting your home on the market can be a stressful process, especially when you don’t know what to expect. Fortunately, with the help of an experienced team of real estate agents and this easy to follow guide, you can smoothly complete the process. Following these steps will help you prepare so you can get organized and sell your home for the best price possible.

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Step 1: Understand Why You're Selling

What do you want to accomplish with the sale of your home? Do you want to make a certain amount of money that you can put toward a larger or nicer home? Do you need to sell it as soon as possible to facilitate a move to a new city or area? Once you understand your needs, you can better craft your offer. For example, if you need to sell quickly, you might want to price your home lower than if your goal is to make a certain profit margin. Make sure you convey these needs to your team of real estate agents once you choose one so they can adjust your selling price accordingly.

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Step 2: Determine Selling Price

Knowing how to price your home is one of the most important parts of the selling process. When you set a fair price in the beginning, you’ll get the most interest from other real estate agents and prospective buyers. Overpricing your home could lead to reduced interest, and underpricing leads to receiving less than what your home is worth. Working with a team of real estate agent is the best way to determine the right selling price for your home. A team of real estate agent with experience can determine what other comparable homes are selling for, evaluate the current market, and may even suggest a home appraisal.

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Step 3: Start Preparations

If you’ve kept your home in showroom condition since you’ve lived in it, you’re in the minority of homeowners. Once you price your home, it’s time to start getting it ready to be shown to potential buyers. This includes getting rid of clutter, depersonalizing the space so that buyers can envision themselves in the space, making any small repairs, and doing a deep clean to make sure your home is in pristine condition.

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Step 4: Develop a Marketing Strategy

We will develop a marketing strategy that is perfect for advertising your home. This involves listing the home and then driving the right people to that listing through social media campaigns, agent-to-agent referrals, traditional media, or SEO advertising. Our team creates a marketing campaign that aims to get the most possible traffic to your listing in the first three weeks after becoming a client.

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Step 5: Evaluate Offers

Receiving an offer is an exciting part of the process, but it doesn’t mean the journey is over. We will evaluate each offer and make sure the party making the offer is prequalified or pre-approved by a mortgage lender and that their offer is acceptable to you. If the offer is too low, you can make a counter-offer or offer other ways to bridge the gap, such as covering some or all of the closing costs, making repairs, adjusting the move-in date, or leaving some appliances or fixtures for the new buyer.

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Step 6: Accept an Offer

Once we deem the offer is acceptable, we will review the proposed contract to make sure it’s all in order and includes the necessary components such as deposit amount, down payment, financing, inspection rights and repair allowances, contingencies, settlement date, and a list of fees and who will pay them. When both parties have agreed to the term, a final contract will be prepared by your team of real estate agents.

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Step 7: Get Ready to Close

You have accepted an offer and are now very close to the end of your selling journey. But first, you and the buyer must make a list of what needs to be done before closing. In some cases, your home may need to be formally inspected, surveyed, and appraised. In other cases, major or minor repairs will need to be made before the house can close. We will head up efforts to develop and execute this list, get each action item paid for by the correct party, and make sure everything is in order by the closing date. A few days before the closing date, we will call the company closing the transaction to make sure everything is ready to go. If you haven’t done so already, you also need to make arrangements to move out of the home so the new buyer can take possession.

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Step 8: Close

You’ve reached the last step in the seller’s process. When you close on a home you are selling, you are legally transferring ownership of the property to the new buyer. We will meet with the company closing the transaction to sign the final paperwork and go over any issues that have not yet been taken care of. During this time, you can also make plans with your team of real estate agents to handle final details such as canceling utilities, cable, and lawn or trash services, changing the name on accounts that the new owner is retaining and ensuring the new owner has instructions for all appliances that will remain in the home.

Congratulations!

Once you have sold your home, you’re free to take the next step on your journey. Whether this is relocating to a new city, moving into a larger home, or downsizing and enjoying your life as empty-nesters, knowing all your selling responsibilities have been taken care of will help you achieve peace of mind for your new path.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Purchasing a new property can be an emotional journey filled with anxiety and uncertainty. Sarah provided my wife and I with a level of comfort and support unrivaled by anyone in the industry. She really helped us with everything from the initial conceptual development potential of the property to strategic positioning of our tendered offer. I will recommend Sarah to all of our friends and family who are...

— Gary A.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

We have worked with Rachel three times now: to purchase our very first home, to purchase our next step up, and to sell that first home. All three times Rachel vastly exceeded expectations. She deeply understands the local markets and takes care to get to know her clients so she can best serve their needs and make sure they end up happy. Both of the houses she helped us purchase were perfect for our needs...

— Buyer

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

We have worked with Sarah multiple times and there is no one I trust more than her about the local San Carlos real estate market. When we were buying a home, Sarah took the time to truly understand what was important to us and was very patient working with us to help us find our dream home. She is very plugged into the local market and had a good sense on pricing and how to write a compelling offer witho...

— Mike H.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

If we could give Rachel 10 stars, we would. My husband and I have worked with over 7 different realtors in the past to buy and sell homes, but none of them even came close to having the connections, knowledge, professionalism, and attention to detail as Rachel. We purchased our home right in the beginning of the Covid shutdown when uncertainty abounded. Rachel navigated the uncharted waters like an exper...

— Buyer

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Working with Sarah was great. She was a trusted partner end to end throughout this process and always had my best interests in mind. She communicated often and openly which I really appreciated, I felt informed and confident the entire time. Above and beyond, Sarah was helpful, responsive and resourceful even months after we moved in with things we needed outside of buying the house. Her networks and exp...

— Kelli D.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

We didn’t quite know what to expect in selling our father’s home. Sarah helped us understand the process and communicated with us every step of the way. Her knowledge of the local real estate market, her relationships with agents and vendors and her preparation of our home for sale was seamless and complete. Great collaborative approach which resulted in a fantastic result.

— David P.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Working with Sarah Ravella and her network of professionals to sell our family home was a dream come true for me, my brother David and our families. Sarah and the team helped us navigate the emotional and technical challenges associated with preparing and selling our parent’s home of 62 years. Sarah skillfully guided us through the required processes of cleaning, inspecting, repairing, upgrading, staging...

— Tim P.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

In mid-September, my siblings and I lost our 91-year-old mother. We decided as none of us live nearby, it would be best to put her 67-year-old tract home on the market. The home was built solidly, but very dated. In October, we contacted Rachel to help us with the sale. Oh my goodness, what a wise move! She was considerate and respectful regarding our childhood home and made us feel like it was more than...

— Seller

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

When I kicked off my home-buying process, I spoke to a handful of agents, all referrals from friends and coworkers. I ended up going with Rachel and I am so glad I did! She's fantastic. She is very informed and knowledgeable about the real estate market in the Bay Area, hard-working, organized, diligent, and a good communicator who responds to texts/emails/phone calls quickly. But most importantly, she i...

— Buyer

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

We are so fortunate to have sold our home in Belmont with Rachel. I met Rachel at an open house in our neighborhood before we ever had plans to move. I was impressed with her knowledge of Belmont and active communication with everyone coming through. A year later when we decided to list our home, I called Rachel. When we met, I appreciated her local experience with the Peninsula market and her easygoing ...

— Seller

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